Pool Water Maintenance Mistakes

Owning a swimming pool is a lot of fun things, but it’s also a commitment. There’s cleaning that needs to be done, consistently and regular maintenance that also needs to feature.

And the biggest pressure of all? Knowing you could be messing something up without even realizing it. After all, a swimming pool is a delicate balance of chemicals, cleaners, and bacteria. Throw any of those things out of whack, and the whole system becomes compromised.

Join us today for a closer look at three of the most common pool maintenance mistakes most pool owners make.

Shocking Pool Water Directly

Treating your pool water with chemicals is more commonly known as “shocking” it, and typically involves flushing it with concentrated chlorine. As you may know, chlorine bleaches things and that applies to everything that goes into your treated pool water, as well. If your concentrations are off, it can ruin your clothes, turning them from black to pink and white to yellow.

Of course, how concentrated your chlorine is is completely within your control, and you actually can’t over shock your pool. Directly shocking your pool water can compromise the integrity of your pool liner, as well, bleaching it to the point where it becomes extremely brittle.

Dissolve whatever chemicals you’re shocking your pool with in a bucket before adding them to your pool water. This distributes the shock more evenly, protecting your liner and producing a more even shock.

Forgetting To Brush

We all know brushing is important, but when was the last time you brushed your swimming pool? Regular vacuuming is a standard when it comes to cleaning your pool, preventing gunk and debris from accumulating and spoiling your swimming experience. Brushing adds to this cleaning process, lifting dirt and mossy build-up.

The process is simple. Simply scrub at any accessible areas with the pool brush until they’re clean. Remember to get into the tighter areas you may not think of at first:

Behind and around the ladder

On and around the stairs

Up to the water-line

Any and all corners and crevices

A simple brush, once a week or more often, is all you’ll need for a healthier, cleaner swimming pool experience.

Automatic Pull Cleaners For An Algae Problem

Pool algae is a big enough problem, even if you’re doing a good job at it. You may be tempted to invest in an automatic pool cleaning unit in order to save yourself some time and trouble. You’re going to want to resist this urge, however, as these pressure-based cleaners don’t typically clean very well.

Automatic pool cleaners use pressure to push pool debris around the circumference of your pool and back through a mesh bag for collection, later on. This might sound ingenious, but more often than not it just means your algae is traveling around your pool, depositing at different points and not cleaning much of anything at all.

This is a pool management issue that’s actually pretty straightforward to solve. Get a manual pool vacuum and switch the filter to before removing the drain plug. This will lead to a nominal amount of water loss but the algae will leave along with it.